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Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra (C) speaks to the media during a press conference after the Constitutional Court suspends her from duty at Government House.
What We’re Watching: Thailand’s PM ousted, Musk vs Trump on bill and midterms, Turkey arrests journalists for blasphemy
Thailand’s PM suspended over flattering phone call
Thailand’s constitutional court accepted a petition on Tuesday to suspend Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, as pressure mounts over the leader’s alleged mishandling of a border dispute with neighbouring Cambodia. The petition accuses Paetongtarn of violating ethical standards in a leaked phone call with influential Cambodian politician Hun Sen, during which she flattered Hun and disparaged her own country’s military. Paetongtarn now has 15 days to gather evidence pleading her case. If she is removed, her party will likely select a successor, but broader clashes with the opposition – and the streets – may just be beginning.
Elon Musk makes a huge threat versus Trump
World’s richest man Elon Musk has more thoughts to offer on US President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” If the bill passes Congress, Musk warns, a third American political party “will be formed the next day,” and every lawmaker who voted for it “will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.” The Senate passed its $3.3-trillion version of the bill on Tuesday, but it must go back through the House before it reaches the president’s desk. Musk’s warning won’t change the fate of Trump’s signature legislation – overwhelming pressure from the US president will far outweigh anything Musk can immediately apply – but his threats to spend mega-millions to swing next year’s midterm elections can’t be ignored.
Cartoon controversy in Turkey
Four employees of a satirical magazine in Turkey have been arrested forpublishing a cartoon that authorities say depicts the Prophet Muhammad, which is forbidden in Islam. With disturbing echoes of the so-called “Charlie Hebdo” murders in Paris ten years ago, Istanbul riot police have had to contain protesters outside the magazine’s offices chanting for “blood” and “revenge.” The publishers emphatically deny their cartoon depicts the prophet, but prosecution of these journalists will offer an easy political win for the ever-controversial PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdoğan and his government.
U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) speaks to reporters between votes at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, U.S., January 23, 2024.
What We’re Watching: Senate vote on Trump’s big bill, Thai PM in hot water, Japan's name-change game
Trump’s tax-and-spending bill faces razor-thin Senate vote
The US Senate will vote today on President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”. The legislation would make many of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent and would boost spending on the military and immigration enforcement, but its proposed cuts could also leave nearly 12 million people without health insurance by 2034. That, and a projected $3.3 trillion national debt increase over the next decade, has stoked opposition even within the Republican party. GOP Senators Rand Paul and Thom Tillis – who announced he won’t seek reelection – are already opposed, meaning Trump can afford only two more defections. Expect today to be a marathon of votes and revisions to the legislation.
Thailand’s PM in hot water over cross-border phone call
Thousands of protestors gathered in Bangkok yesterday, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra over a leaked phone call in which she was heard obsequiously flattering Cambodia’s still-influential former leader Hun Sen. The call played poorly in the light of a recent border spat between the two countries. Paetongtarn defended the call as a negotiation tactic, but the streets say she’s compromising Thailand’s sovereignty. Thailand’s Constitutional Court will rule this week on a petition calling for her removal.
Japan’s name change game
A campaign is afoot in Japan to relax a law that effectively requires women to take their husband’s last names. Proponents of the change, which is supported by most Japanese, say it will increase gender equality, boost Japan’s alarmingly low birthrate, and avoid a situation in which, over time, everyone ends up with the most common last name: “Sato.” But the governing LDP’s hard-right wing is opposed, and with an upper house election in July, the party wants no trouble. For now, “Satos all the way down” looks like Japan’s destiny after all.
Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen poses with his son Hun Manet near the capital, Phnom Penh.
Cambodia's nepo-baby succession: From strongman to strongson
On Sunday, Cambodia will hold a parliamentary election. It'll be anything but free and fair.
The ruling party controls all 125 seats in parliament. Opposition parties are banned. Political dissidents are silent, fearful that speaking out against the government might be followed by an unfortunate road accident — Cambodia's answer to Russians falling out of windows under Vladimir Putin.
What makes this “election” special is that it should be the last one for Hun Sen, the Southeast Asian country's eternal dictator, ahem, prime minister.
Hun Sen — who is always referred to by his full name — has been calling all the shots in Cambodia in various capacities since 1985. Asia's longest-serving leader came to power when his country was still recovering from the trauma of the Khmer Rouge regime, which exterminated a quarter of the population in the mid-1970s.
But after almost 40 years in charge, the septuagenarian says that after the vote he’ll hand over the reins to his son: Hun Manet.
Cambodia’s next PM, 45, currently serves as the country’s army chief. After getting a UK and US education — including a stint at West Point — he made a name for himself by negotiating peace with neighboring Thailand when the two countries almost went to war over a disputed border temple in 2011. Since then, his dad has been grooming him to be his successor.
Dynastic succession is fairly common in Southeast Asia, where name recognition is often the only game in town and political dynasties can rule their fiefdoms for decades. Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Singapore have all had second-generation leaders.
Still, Cambodia will be the first nation in which the post goes directly from father to son — like the Kims in North Korea. And no matter how weak the opposition and how well-planned his succession has been, it won't be smooth sailing for Hun Manet.
For one thing, he will inherit a highly personalized patronage system in which the immensely wealthy elite often have competing interests. No one knows if a princeling barely tested in political battles will have Hun Sen’s chops to keep rifts at bay within the ruling party.
(Fun fact: Hun Sen recently quit Facebook after Meta threatened to ban him for sharing violent content, and Hun Manet now has the most Facebook friends in the country.)
For another, GDP growth has been lagging. Cambodia's economy is too reliant on its low-cost labor force and the tourism industry, hit hard by COVID. Also, Hun Sen's authoritarian vibes have turned Cambodia into a pariah state for the West, limiting its ability to trade with the EU and the US despite his recent efforts to patch things up with Brussels and Washington.
One country that wants everything to go without a hitch is China. Cambodia is Beijing's closest friend in the region, often to the dismay of other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Cambodia has sided with China in ASEAN squabbles over the South China Sea and hosts a not-so-secret Chinese naval base.
When he takes charge, Xi Jinping hopes that strongson Hun Manet will be as reliably pro-China as his strongman dad. If he is, Xi will have his back.
Hungarian minister tests positive for Covid-19 in Bangkok
BANGKOK • Hungary's foreign minister tested positive for coronavirus in Thailand, the kingdom's health minister said yesterday, a day after Mr Peter Szijjarto jetted in from a meeting with Cambodian Premier Hun Sen.
Cambodian opposition activists sentenced for treason
PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Seven Cambodian activists have been handed jail sentences for treason over comments posted online supporting an exiled opposition figure, their lawyer said on Thursday (Sept 24), deepening the kingdom's crackdown on dissent.
Hun Sen denies Cambodia is Chinese 'colony' as work on US$2b road begins
PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Cambodia broke ground on Friday (March 22) on a US$2 billion (S$2.70 billion) Chinese-funded expressway - the country's first - as strongman premier Hun Sen denied his country was in danger of becoming a colony of Beijing.